Brief notes on "The Name of the Doctor"

[nonelvis]

Well, all but one of the spoilers I'd heard were true, and mercifully, the spoiler I found most upsetting -- that River would erase herself from history so she could never speak the Doctor's name -- turned out to be completely bogus. Anyway, considering all the other spoilers I'd heard were pretty exciting, it's safe to say I loved this episode.

Sure, it doesn't make a lot of sense. Clara drops herself into the Doctor's timeline and saves his life a bunch of times, which isn't quite the same as sparing him pain, and also, the Great Intelligence would have made a better villain if we'd seen it more than, what, twice this season? But LA LA LA LA I DON'T CARE because there were all those beautiful Classic Who references (terrible compositing aside); we got a huge heaping handful of mythology about what happens when a Time Lord dies (not to mention a bunch of questions about the circumstances of the Doctor's death); and the Eleven/River scene just about broke me. I realize people who don't buy the Doctor/River relationship will continue to find ways to wiggle out of canon this time, but I will likewise continue to think that these people are quite deliberately not watching the show being broadcast on television.

Also, there was JOHN HURT, whose presence was not exactly a surprise, what with being spoilered, but the setup for the anniversary special just made me wriggle with joy.

tl;dr, this has been a pretty uneven season for me, but all is forgiven because this episode exists.